The party line at FitzGerald’s Dayton event: Kasich takes from poor, and gives to the rich.

Here’s newly-minted city commissioner Jeffrey Mims.

"His budgets have undeniably been a tax shift away from the poor and middle class, and moving towards doing everything they can to help his buddies and his friends who are wealthy and at the top of the financial food chain," Mims said.

Democrats criticize Kasich for cutting income taxes while raising sales taxes -- a strategy that results in disproportionate savings for the rich.

And they say Kasich’s JobsOhio -- a semi-privatized economic development agency -- suffers from conflicts of interest.